Hour 3

Replacing an internal hard drive, all about sound bars, printer troubleshooting, why can't I get radio reception at my home? Migrating data to a new computer, Johnny Jet has an app to help with a fear of flying, apps to record and collaborate music with others, and more of your calls!

Audience Questions

Audience QuestionsHour 1

Ryan has been having trouble with his Samsung Galaxy phone. He keeps sending it in because of an expanding lithium ion battery and they keep returning it unfixed. Leo says that Samsung knows painfully well the dangers of expanding batteries. Since Ryan wasn't the original owner, Samsung exploited that loop hole because that indicated there was no warranty to extend. But he told Samsung he spoke to Leo and they offered a replacement, which is a good thing.

Leo says that moving forward, Samsung has contracted with iBreakUFix to repair, so he'll no longer have to send a phone in if there's a similar problem. Leo says that one of the reasons that Apple charges a premium is because of their superior support.

Dennis wants to upgrade his HP laptop. He wants to double his RAM and install an SSD. Will that help? Leo says that if he has a fast enough bus for the computer, an SSD will certainly speed things up, as an SSD has zero latency. Reads are very fast. But he won't get as much as a modern laptop. It'll still be noticeable. And he'll get at least a 10-20% boost by doubling his RAM.

Since he can't replace the processor, this is the best thing he can do to keep it going. And reinstalling his OS will definitely make it faster. Should he do it all at the same time? Leo would recommend installing the RAM, then reboot to make sure it's seated correctly and booting up properly. Then he can go ahead and install his SSD. It should come with a cloning program to clone his spinning drive.

Dennis' Canon printer isn't working anymore. He's replaced the cartridges, but it still doesn't print. What can he do? Leo says that if he goes into the printer setup and looks in the maintenance manual, there will be a "clean print head" utility. There's a good chance that ink has dried into the head and the clean print head utility will clear that out. He should run it several times. If he still gets nothing, there's a good chance the print head has died. But some models replace the print head when replacing the cartridges. So he should make sure his cartridges are properly "seated." If it doesn't work, then his printer is likely dead. The good news is that printers are cheap.

Audience QuestionsHour 2

Darrell is having issues getting radio stations on all three of his radios at home. All he gets is static. Leo says that is odd. He even went into another apartment and tried and the same thing. Leo says it sounds like some sort of signal jamming. What he recommends is contacting KFI's engineering department and report it. The engineer could probably help him figure out what the problem is. But if other radio stations are also a problem, then that sounds like some sort of illegal electronic activity going on. And since there's construction going on in the building, that could be the culprit.

Don has a new hard drive and wants to know how he can move his programs over to the new drive. Leo says there really isn't a way to do it other than simply reinstalling the programs. Microsoft's installation of software is all over the place and as such, it's difficult to backup a program and recover it to another hard drive. There are some application movers out there, but Leo isn't confident that work well. Funduc makes one, but his best bet is probably Laplink. They've been doing it longer than anyone else. But it still won't be perfect.

Henry wants to use Garage Band to record music. Can he do that? Leo says sure. Garage Band is free, and it works just fine, even if it is a little intimidating. Other options include Amadeus Pro for $50 and Twisted Wave for about $80. The beauty of it is, it's very simple. There's also a "lite" version for $20. He could even try the free Audacity, but Leo has found it to be more unstable than the paid alternatives. But he may want to try recording on his iPhone first. The quality is quite good.

Audience QuestionsHour 3

Nam bought a new router, but now he can't print. Leo says it's a good idea to delete the connection in his printer, then go into the printer settings of his computer and delete the connection there. Then reinstall. It could be it just needs to be reacquired by the OS.

Fred bought a Plume Mesh router to improve coverage in his house and improve the latency. But the latency problem is still there while doing file sharing. What else can he do to stop it? Leo says that he should look at DSLReports bandwidth tester. It'll give him an accurate measurement of his latency issues. He should also run speedtest.net.

The real culprit is probably that Fred is using satellite for his internet connection, which is also affecting his network. What Fred needs to do is share files on his own network, not on the public internet. He should change the settings in his router. Fred should be able to find a tutorial online to do this.

Jeffrey has his email set to IMAP and he has thousands of emails on his phone. How can he delete them? Leo says if he goes into his settings, he can have them deleted/expunged from the server. That's in the client settings on his phone, but it's not on by default. So if he deletes them from his computer, which is easier, it should delete them from Gmail.

As for his phone, he doesn't really have a copy of the email there. it's just a window to the cached copy on the internet. So if he refreshes the phone, the email should disappear. The issue is that Jeffrey thinks he's using IMAP, but he may be using POP3. It's not set that way by default though — Gmail uses IMAP.

Mark wants to know if all-in-one computers are a good deal. Leo says that Apple changed the game with the iMac and now other PC makers offer them to. They're elegant looking, but some are difficult to expand and upgrade. All-in-ones have thermal constraints as well, and some all-in-ones have a throttled processor because of the heat issue. But if he gets one, he should spring for the SSD and at least 8GB of RAM. It'll help his performance dramatically. That's really where performance is needed anyway. Then he should keep his data on a spinning external drive.

Should he get an antivirus? Leo says no. Most antivirus are notoriously inaccurate, open the system up to other threats, and do nothing for so-called "zero day exploits." Leo says for Windows, Microsoft's own Windows Defender is free and comes with the system. It's good enough. But the last line of defense is his own online behavior.

This Week in Tech News

Fans are upset that actor John Krazinski has sold his YouTube web series Some Good News to CBS after a furious bidding war. Why are they upset? Because Krazinski isn't going to be continuing as the anchor of the popular youtube series. Many fans are now complaining that Krazinski has sold out. But Leo says that Krazinski is a TV and Movie star, and director, with a lot of other commitments on the horizon. But will SGN thrive without him? Leo isn't so sure.

Moving towards a more autonomous computer-oriented news curation, Microsoft this week laid off all their editors and writers for Microsoft News. Leo says that the news site isn't going away, Microsoft is just going to rely on an artificial intelligence algorithm to curate the stories it posts. Leo also adds that both Apple and Google have gone the other way, believing that human curation increases engagement. Leo also says that Facebook is also relying on an algorithm, and its news page is just terrible.

Leo says that while algorithms are good for optimizing your end result, they can get more extreme and just plain weird.

After a rain delay on Wednesday, SpaceX is poised to launch its first manned mission to the International Space Station with DM-2. Leo says that while critics say that money shouldn't be "wasted" on space exploration, Leo disagrees, saying that a tiny fraction of the federal budget goes to NASA and the Commercial Space Program, and the benefits of what we learn far outweigh what we spend, or the risk. And it always has.

Twitter announced this week that their employees can work from home and don't ever have to come back to the office. Leo says that this could be a new emerging trend, where companies allow ther employees to telecommute. The result could also be that people will be able to live where they can afford, rather than living in expensive areas. But it may also mean that companies will pay their employees less if they live in cheaper areas. But companies are also battling for the best talent, by offering amenities. Working from home will be part of that.